The newest title in Natasha Wing?s bestselling Night Before series! It?s the night before New Year?s, and the whole family is determined to stay up until midnight! Everyone?s stocked up on sparkly streamers and festive party hats, but after a night filled with card games and too many cupcakes, the little ones are getting sleepy. . . Can they make it until the clock strikes twelve?

Some insight into Life in Mani Today - The Road to freedom... Not since the advent of British writer Patrick Leigh Fermor's book, Mani - Travels in the Southern Peloponnesus, more than fifty years ago, has there been an historic update, written in English, concerning this land and its people, from a new and very different perspective. Miami-born, Greek-American urologist, Dr. Mickey Demos, exposes the Mani from a unique angle in his book Life in Mani Today - The Road to Freedom. This has been a project that the contributing editor, Panayiotis Kokkinias, has spent nearly two years preparing for publication. Kokkinias spent much of this past year in Mani working with Dr. Demos, who wanted to create an up-to-date version to the changes in history, which he discovered when he moved to Mani. His reasoning was based on the fact that his entire family origin began here centuries ago and, until he turned 69 years of age, he had never even visited Greece. Now, at 80, he was on a quest that encompassed an eleven year odyssey. Realizing the passion Kokkinias had for writing, based upon a number of book and periodicals that he had authored and which Demos had read, he asked Kokkinias to help him organize and complete his 600 pages of thoughts into a concise book format and get it published. "Demos was a natural," Kokkinias said in an interview, relating to the Doctor's ability to capture the stories he relates in Life in Mani Today. "So many people of Greek descent have had their roots in Mani, and the stories abound reflecting the traits and characteristics of these wild mountain people who all claim to have a direct connection to a man named Petros Mavromichalis, one of the greatest freedom fighters in Hellenic history. So many myths, superstitions, battles, wild stories, songs, poems, hearsay, as well as vampires, bats, vendettas, and the power of the evil eye are just the beginning along with the warning to those who so much as mention the word, 'Mani', to anyone outside of this region. Everybody in Greece knew about Mani and had something to say about the place. 'You had better watch yourself. Those people in Mani are dangerous.' "Life in Mani Today will give new insight into what has transpired over these past 50-plus years. It is not a dry historical chronology, but a lively look, with some comic relief, about life in the old country. You might be surprised at what has changed... and more surprised at what has stayed the same." Here is an opportunity to learn more about a part of Greece that has remained independent of the rest of the mainland for many years. How these people have survived and succeeded in life, and have stayed free from a lot of the politics that currently threaten the financial stability of this great country, continues as a credit to their hard work, their intelligence, and their use of common sense.

In The Reason of Church Government, a thirty-three-year-old John Milton writes of his hope that by labour and intent study... joyn'd with the strong propensity of nature, I might perhaps leave something so written to aftertimes, as they should not willingly let it die. Even the young Milton, committed as he was to achieving a place in the annals of poetic history, might have been surprised by the strenuous efforts in aftertimes to keep his legacy alive. The fifteen essays that comprise this collection focus, from varied perspectives, on Paradise Lost, Paradise Regained, and A Mask, poems that have attracted sustained critical attention. Several consider shorter poems, such as the Nativity Ode, The Passion, Upon the Circumcision, and Sonnet 14. Some pursue issues of sources, authorship, and audience, while still others probe extant biographical records or reflect on the author as biographical subject. Diverse though they are in subject matter, approaches, and emphases, all demonstrate how Milton scholarship in the twenty-first century continues to be committed to not willingly let ting] Milton's literary legacy die. Kristin A. Brothers University. Charles W. Durham is professor emeritus of English at Middle Tennessee State University, and is president of the Milton Society of America.

In this book are poems I wrote in my WebTV days, some requested by friends for special occasions and others submitted to the love of my life, who I met online during that stage of my life. Several poems are lengthy and go into some depth, but many readers have told me they are drawn into them, seeing themselves as characters. I was known as DJ Sweeper in the day of WebTV, hence the title Swept Away by DJ seems appropriate. Sit back, relax, and enjoy some old-time rhythm and rhyme.

The author argues that the problems and issues that have defined America in the 20th century - such as business mergers, trade disputes and racial violence - were first revealed in their modern form in the year 1900. Ten chapters comprise a narrative history of the events of this pivotal year.

In her first book, We Are Surely Blessed, Ann Williams focused on her parents, Leslie and Esther Johnson. They watch as their five older children grow to adulthood, marry and start their own familys while the two younger children continue their education. They pulled together during the Great Depression, WW I, and saw two of their sons serve in the army during WW II. It is now 1949. In The Passage of Time you will see their dream of having a large family, materialize. Each of the families has settled in the farming area around Guss, Iowa. Follow them as they prosper with their own dreams and watch their children go forward. Share with them the beginning of life and the loss of life, as sudden sadness engulfs them. Join Esther and Leslie as they celebrate their 50th Anniversary. They continue to share the love of the land, the pride in their family, and the country in which they were born. They continue to hold their faith in God. There is a feeling that someone is always watching over them and He will walk with them for the rest of their lives. Follow their youngest daughter as she and her husband and two sons leave the Iowa farm lands and settle in San Jose, California.

This book is the story of an incredible journey. It is the odyssey of recovery. This is a firsthand account of what it takes to overcome the greatest theft; the stolen self. This is the story of the recovery of a shattered spirit. This is an account of what gauntlets must be run to experience the ultimate victory. The victory of self actualization. In the end all we search for is ourselves. This book is about what ways, what mazes, what illusions, what lies, what inheritances we must live to break apart and free ourselves from. We must own every tragic mystery in order to let each mysterious secret go. The path to humility is the road less traveled. From the words of Robert Frost: This is an autobiography of a girl who took the road less traveled and it has made all the difference. The great paradox is; the gift is not the Divine providence of freedom from the fear of being ones' self. The end result is not about being who we are. The gift is the purpose that blooms from such manifest; the benevolent opportunity to expose the path to someone else. There is no end result. As the purpose of life becomes apparent it expands as light outside the hard borders of materialism. That light is love, a governing energy little recognized and eternally sought. This is a story of a girl who struggles through each level and into womanhood to find what love really is. That flame so sought, no longer a flicker so small its source is questionable, is become a fire that is undeniable as the light and warmth it heaves out is seen and felt by the most blind and bitterly cold.